When Breath Becomes Air

by Paul Kalanithi

You could not help but feel your specklike existence against the immensity of the mountain, the earth, the universe, and yet still feel your own two feet on the talus, reaffirming your presence amid the grandeur.

I wanted that direct experience. It was only in practicing medicine that I could pursue a serious biological philosophy.

What kind of life exists without language?

Science may provide the most useful way to organize empirical, reproducible data, but its power to do so is predicated on its inability to grasp the most

central aspects of human life: hope, fear, love, hate, beauty, envy, honor, weakness, striving, suffering, virtue.

Impactful

Paul confronted death—examined it, wrestled with it, accepted it—as a physician and a patient.

“I will share your joy and sorrow / Till we’ve seen this journey through.”

This is the line of the book that broke me.

“Can you breathe okay with my head on your chest like this?” His answer was “It’s the only way I know how to breathe.”